The eSports scene was shaken by revelations that three top Counter Strike: Global Offensive players were banned by Valve’s VAC anti-cheating software for using hacks. Three players, Hovik “KQLY” Tovmassian, Simon “smn” Beck, and Gordon “Sf” Giry each received in-game bans last week. This has lead to their respective teams – Titan and Epsilon – to be disqualified from the Dreamhack Winter tournament which carries a prize pool of US$250,000.

While this is not the first time that professional CS:GO players have received VAC bans for hacks, it is the first time that it has involved top level competitors. However, KQLY claims that he only used for the week before he was banned; and that the hack was not in use during any competitive matches. All three players that have been banned have also been dropped from their respective teams.

Speculation is rife that many other competitive players are also using similar cheating devices during competitive matches; which even if proven to be untrue has cast a shadow of doubt of the legitimacy of eSports.

Smn, one of the banned players, has come out to claim that some 40-percent of the pro-gaming scene is using hacks. KQLY has similarly claimed that the person who offered him the use of the hack said that “many pro players” were using it. There is as yet no real proof that this these claims are true; although many current CS:GO players would not be too surprised if this was the case.

eSports has had a rough few months with the Dota 2 scene as Malaysia’s Arrow Gaming were embroiled in a match fixing scandal only a month ago.